This is worth watching, Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris and Australian Business Council chief Tony Shepherd spoke on Sunday with Alan Kohler on the ABC’s Inside Business.
At 5.40 Andrew Liveris says Australia is suffering a state of economic rigor mortis – “we’ve lost the ability to innovate” – with no plans and a great complacency. It’s something all Aussies should reflect upon, although don’t expect these blokes to be any help.
As a young well-travelled Australian I’m convinced the design and use of our cities is a major reason for the conservatism and lack of dynamism witnessed in this country.
Travelling through Europe and America it’s startling to see the impact that either well-designed, dense cities with accessible public transport or cheap housing or both has on the population – to start with, students can actually live at a university or with other students instead of living with mum and dad for years and learning via a textbook.
Young people fail to act and think independently, including in the business world, if they have had a sheltered live-at-home life during their late teens and early twenties. The convervative get-a-job buy-a-house thinking becomes dogma and any of the young people of real intelligence and drive end up leaving to contirbute to economies overseas when they realise how much more exciting life as a young person is outside of Australia.
Good point Richard, the design of Australian cities is a problem. It’s one of these things that has been ignored and now we’re suffering the consequences.